The government announced Monday the return of the gauges for gatherings, set at 2,000 people maximum indoors and 5,000 outdoors.

And standing concerts are simply prohibited.

Measures adopted for three weeks.

"It's chaos. The standing concerts were only back since this summer and the full gauges (indoors) had only returned since mid-November", plague Tuesday with AFP Angelo Gopee, expert in large format tours and concerts.

"If it's to make a season that begins in April and ends in November, it no longer makes sense, at some point you will really have to live with this virus", adds for AFP Aurélie Hannedouche, from Sma ( Syndicate of current music), network of medium and small venues.

"We were not consulted, we are beside ourselves, worn out, transforming standing into sitting means going from three people standing to one sitting down (hence a shortfall, editor's note). prefer to remain closed for three weeks, ”adds the voice of Sma.

"Some tours will be canceled because there is no longer the possibility of reprogramming in 2022, all the slots are taken with the previous postponements, prolongs the head of Live Nation France. However the political meetings will take place, it is a lack of respect".

"Decisions that challenge when we know that culture is a pillar of democracy, as much as political meetings can be", also scolds Sacem (Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers).

"I organize meetings here"

Grand Corps Malade is ironic on its social networks.

"I am therefore a candidate for the presidential elections, all my meetings are maintained", we read above the dates of a tour renamed "campaign".

Same tone at Eddy de Pretto: "I organize meetings here", he posts, sliding his calendar.

OrelSan postponed Tuesday the first four dates of its new tour from January to April.

But it is a comfort that not all artists can afford.

Benjamin Biolay indicated on Instagram the cancellation of four concerts: "There will be no postponement (...) I would have made the joke on the meetings but the heart is not there".

"Some tours are amortized only after a certain number of dates, five canceled dates, it is 500,000 euros of losses in some cases", points again Angelo Gopee.

France escapes a closure of cultural places like in Belgium.

But in current music, aesthetics like rap or electro are incompatible with seated audiences.

"And who tells us that these measures will only last three weeks?" Asks Angelo Gopee again.

The industry believed it had taken shelter with the Indochina test concert in the spring.

The presence "at a concert was not associated with an increased risk of transmission of (Covid-19) during a concert in a standing configuration, without physical distancing, in people masked with a negative antigen test in a room closed ", noted at the time the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP).

Of course, the Delta or Omicron variants were not yet rife.

But the vaccination had not reached the current thresholds either (complete regimen for 76.6% of the total population, more than 22 million people with a booster dose).

"The problem with standing concerts is the bar. The Indochina concert-test proved that a mask, sanitary pass and a closed bar prevented the circulation of the virus. It's sad a concert like that but it's better than to put culture on the ground ", analysis on his social networks Sophian Fanen, journalist specializing in the sector.

"The state will remain alongside those who will be impacted by these new measures," Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot assured Monday evening on Twitter.

But Angelo Gopee points to "the unquantifiable in the context of compensation": "faced with so many uncertainties the future sale of tickets will be affected, people will no longer dare to book".

© 2021 AFP